Amélie Director Assumes Life of Pi

Share.

Frenchman replaces Cuarón in the lost-at-sea tale.

By Paul Davidson

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of Am&#Array;lie and Alien: Resurrection, is lined up to direct the quirky sea story Life of Pi. The Frenchman is Fox 2000's latest pick, with M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) and Alfonso Cuar&#Array;n (Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban) both having been attached to the project at various times.

Variety reports that Jeunet and his longtime writing colleague Guillaume Laurant have already begun work on the screenplay. Life of Pi is a priority for the studio, which undoubtedly hopes to take advantage of the novel's considerable popularity. The original tale by Yann Martel concerns the voyage of Pi Patel, a boy shipwrecked during a voyage from India to Canada. The boy ends up sharing a lifeboat with a hyena, a tiger, an orangutan, and an injured zebra.

Life of Pi is expected to begin production next summer, with shooting to take place in India and at Fox's studio in Baja, where the same massive water tank used for Titanic is housed.